SUCCESS!

Why: Because cicerone Jeff Fryman has fine taste in beer and excellent pairing suggestions. Hell, just because the place has a cicerone -- the beer equivalent of a sommelier -- at all. Not a beer lover? The fine selection of vinos and creative signature cocktails should appeal to any other happy hour enthusiast.

Steven Doyle's First Look at the table painted a glowing picture of the new Uptown eatery, and our experience with the drinks, at least, confirms his enthusiasm. Not only does the bar menu offer specialty craft brews such as Dogfish Head's Raison D'Etre, North Coast's Old Rasputin and Real Ale's Real Heavy on draft, the bar also hosts tappings of very limited releases such as last week's Racer X keg. At happy hour, take a dollar off the bigger pours, and you'll get a nice tall glass of high-ABV craft brew for anywhere from $6 to $14. Or take a dollar off that bottle-conditioned 52-oz. bottle of Maudite and pop the cork for a mere $88 instead of $89.

Signature cocktails are all named for significant events that happened on the bar's opening date of June 2. Examples include the L Train, Barnum's Red Tour and, umm, the Fabrizzio, named for Strokes drummer Fab Moretti. And after you take a happy hour $1 off, they're a relatively reasonable $8 or $9 -- not bad, considering the obvious care that goes into them.